Only 17% of legacy Retirement Savings Account holders have completed the mandatory exercise, prompting the pension regulator to introduce quarterly targets and public performance reports…..
The National Pension Commission has warned Pension Fund Administrators that they could face regulatory sanctions if they fail to meet new targets for the ongoing Retirement Savings Account data recapture exercise.
The warning followed a poor completion rate recorded in the first quarter of 2026, with PenCom saying only 17.03 per cent of legacy RSA holders had completed the mandatory process.
In its Q1 2026 report, the commission disclosed that 58,220 accounts were recaptured during the quarter, taking the total number of completed recaptures to 1,485,052.
That figure represents only a fraction of the estimated 8,722,609 legacy RSA accounts still subject to the exercise.
PenCom said the pace of progress was too slow and warned that, if the exercise continued at the current rate, it could take more than 25 quarters to complete.
The commission has consequently decided to take greater control of the process, moving it from an exercise driven primarily by individual PFAs to one managed through a more closely monitored regulatory framework.
“PenCom will introduce PFA-level quarterly recapture targets, publish quarterly progress reports, and impose regulatory sanctions on operators that materially under-perform against target during 2026,” the commission stated.
Norrenberger Pensions recorded the highest number of data recaptures during the first quarter, completing 17,157 accounts.
The figure accounted for 29.47 per cent of the industry’s total recapture activity during the period.
Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers ranked second with 10,963 recaptured accounts, while Veritas Glanvills Pension recorded 6,328.
Guaranty Trust Pensions and FCMB Pensions rounded off the top five, with 3,918 and 3,888 recaptures respectively.
The new quarterly targets are expected to give PenCom a clearer basis for assessing the performance of individual PFAs and identifying operators that are falling significantly behind.
The data recapture programme was introduced by PenCom in August 2019 and requires Retirement Savings Account holders to update and validate their personal and biometric information with their respective PFAs.
The exercise is intended to improve the integrity and reliability of pension records and ensure that contributors’ information is properly matched and maintained within the pension system.
However, the slow pace of recapture has continued to pose a challenge to the regulator.
With more than eight million legacy accounts estimated to be covered by the exercise, the latest figures suggest that millions of RSA records remain outstanding.
PenCom’s decision to introduce quarterly targets and publish performance reports is therefore expected to increase pressure on PFAs to intensify their engagement with affected contributors.
Meanwhile, PenCom disclosed that Katsina State has amended its pension law to adopt the Contributory Pension Scheme.
The development increased the number of Nigerian states with legislation establishing the CPS to 25, up from 24.
However, only eight states have so far reached full compliance by both enacting the necessary legislation and commencing implementation through licensed Pension Fund Administrators.
Another 17 states have passed the required legislation but have yet to begin implementation.
The figures highlight the uneven pace at which the contributory pension system is being adopted across the country.
While the expansion of CPS legislation represents progress, PenCom’s latest report indicates that further work remains to translate legal adoption into actual implementation and broader participation.
For PFAs, however, the immediate priority is clear: with PenCom now moving towards quarterly performance monitoring and sanctions, operators that have lagged behind in the RSA data recapture exercise face increased regulatory pressure to accelerate their efforts.
